It’s been a while since we featured a page 23 here, and what better way to return to that detail than this new publication from London studio Made Thought?

To Think is a new quarterly — the team have commited to a year’s worth at least — that cleverly extends the meaning of the studio name. The lushly-produced, 106-page publication is essentially a plea to give more time to thinking about our visual culture and how/what we add to it.

‘Our new-found capability to engage with ever-refreshing visual content is outstripping our ability to understand, synthesise and appreciate it,’ reads the opening letter. There follows a series of essays and conversations, starting with Made Thought partners Ben Parker and Paul Austin and going on to include celebrity creatives Tom Dixon, Frederic Malle, Skye Gingell and others. It’s a good read.

The design is clean and simple, with a structural nod to Fantastic Man in its use of coulmn rules and monochrome typography. Being text-led, this makes for a satisfyingly stark impression that is brought to life by generous use of space (helped by the goregous Colorplan stock) and mutliple sizes of Commerical Type’s ‘Portrait’ font with Helvetica Neue details.

The presentation looks like a series of thoughts, with quotes and headings thrown on at sharp diagonals.

Page 23 is the opener for the main part of the magazine, a rare black page that (along with occasional colour pages) reinforces the careful structure of the magazine. It sets the terms of the design grid, before it gets broken up on later pages.

07.02.19

Looking forward to the whole thing; meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from Jill Abramson’s book ‘Merchants of Truth,’ alongside which this 2015 confrontation between NYTimes’ David Carr and Vice executives is worth another look.

While Vice and co continue staff cuts, back at the NYTimes, they’ve just reported digital revenue for 2018 of $709m.